Canfield

Full rules

1. Overview
2. Card order and colours
3. The parts of the layout
4. Setup
5. Playing
6. Winning
7. Tips for beginners
8. Variants

Overview

Canfield is a patience (a card game for one player, also called solitaire). In Britain it is known as Demon, and it earns the name: it looks easy, but only a few games come out. Your goal is to sort all 52 cards onto four piles, one per suit. Unusually, these piles don't start with the Ace – they start with whatever rank the deal decides.

• Players: 1
• You need: one standard 52-card deck, no jokers.
• Time: about 10 minutes per game.

Card order and colours

♥ hearts and ♦ diamonds are the red suits, ♠ spades and ♣ clubs the black suits. The ranks run A – 2 – 3 … 10 – J – Q – K, and in Canfield they go round the corner: after the King comes the Ace again, then the 2. So a Queen, King, Ace, 2 is a proper sequence.

The parts of the layout

• Reserve: a pile of 13 cards, of which only the top card is face up. It is the "demon" of the game.
• Foundations: four piles, one per suit, where you collect the cards. The first card of every foundation has the same rank – the rank of the card dealt at the start (the base card).
• Tableau: four piles (columns) in a row, where you can rearrange cards. The cards in a column are spread slightly so you can see them all. The top card of a column is the one nearest to you, not covered by any other.
• Stock: the face-down pile of the remaining cards.
• Waste: the face-up pile onto which you turn cards from the stock.

Setup

1. Shuffle. Count 13 cards face down into a pile and turn its top card face up. This is the reserve.
2. Deal the 14th card face up above and to the right of the reserve. This is the first foundation, and its rank is the base card for all four foundations.
3. Deal four cards face up in a row to the right of the reserve: the tableau.
4. The remaining 34 cards are the stock. Hold them face down (or put them on the table) and leave room below the tableau for the waste.

In this example the 8♦ is the first foundation, so the other three foundations will start with the other three 8s.

Playing

There are no turns – you make one move after another, in any order. These are the moves:

1. To a foundation: when another card of the base rank becomes available, start a new foundation with it. On each foundation build upwards in the same suit, going round the corner: with base 8, the ♦ foundation runs 8♦ 9♦ 10♦ J♦ Q♦ K♦ A♦ 2♦ … 7♦. The top card of the reserve, of the waste and of every tableau column can go to a foundation.
2. In the tableau: onto the top card of a column you may put a card that is one rank lower and of the other colour – this is called building down in alternating colours. For example a red 10 goes on a black J, a black 9 on the red 10. Round the corner, a black K may go on a red A.
3. Moving a column: a column can only be moved as a whole, onto another column where its first (highest) card – the one farthest from you – fits. You cannot split a column.
4. Spaces: when a tableau column becomes empty, fill it at once with the top card of the reserve. Once the reserve is used up, you may fill a space with the top card of the waste – but you may also leave it empty as long as you like. Cards from other columns never go into a space.
5. The reserve: its top card may always be played to a foundation or onto the tableau. Then the next reserve card is turned up.
6. The stock: turn cards from the stock onto the waste three at a time, keeping their order. Only the top card of the waste is playable; when you play it, the one below becomes available. If fewer than three cards are left, turn them all.
7. Going through again: when the stock is used up, turn the waste over (without shuffling) to form a new stock and carry on. You may do this as often as you like, until the game is won or no more moves can be made.

Example: With the layout above, the 10♥ goes on the J♣. The space left by the 10♥ is filled at once with the 9♣ from the reserve – and the 9♣ can go straight onto the 10♥. The next reserve card fills the space again.

Winning

You win when all 52 cards are on the foundations, 13 on each. If you go through the stock without being able to make any move, the game is lost. Morehead and Mott-Smith estimated that only about one game in 30 comes out.

Tips for beginners

• Get the reserve down as fast as you can – every card played from it brings a new one into the game, and its hidden cards are what beats you.
• Use tableau spaces for the reserve, which happens automatically; don't be afraid to move a whole column to create a space.
• Before turning the stock, check every possible play – the order in which you take cards off the waste changes which cards turn up on the next pass.
• Don't rush every card to the foundations if you may still need it in the tableau to hold a card from the reserve.

Variants

All optional – agree before you start.

• Partial moves: many books and computer versions let you move just the lower part of a column, or single cards, from column to column. This makes the game easier.
• Rainbow: turn the stock one card at a time, with only two redeals (three passes in all).
• Selective Canfield: after the reserve, deal five cards; choose one of them as the first foundation, the other four form the tableau.
• Storehouse: take the four 2s out first as foundations; turn the stock one at a time, with two redeals; build the tableau down in the same suit.
• Casino scoring: "pay" 50 points at the start and score 5 points for every card on the foundations – all 52 cards bring 260 points, 210 more than you paid. Keep a running total over several games.